Call Him Dr. Allman

Carter, 92, is on the board of trustees at Mercer University, where the band spent its early years. An unlikely intersection occurred between the 39th president and the seminal southern rock group when the Allman Brothers Band offered early funding to his presidential campaign.

Carter told the Carter Political Items Collectors last fall, during the group’s annual dinner on Plains Peanut Festival weekend: “The Allman Brothers basically put us in the White House,” and told the commencement audience on Sunday that he might not have been president if the band hadn’t “adopted” him, the Associated Press reported. Drawing laughs from the audience, Carter said the band’s endorsement let people know he “must be qualified to be president of the United States.”

Allman, 68, joins the short list of musicians to receive an honorary doctorate from Mercer’s humanities department–in existence for nearly two centuries. Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell and Little Richard are the only people also honored. According to university president William D. Underwood, the trustees’ vote was unanimous.